COURTESY OF TIM BRYAN VIA KITV4 NEWS
The twisted wreckage of a car lay in the rain south of Hilo yesterday after it collided with an oncoming tour minibus. All four people in the car were killed.
Speeding car hits
minibus; 4 killedBig Isle police say all victims
were in the car, which was
speeding in the rain
GLENWOOD, Hawaii >> A compact car speeding downhill in heavy rain south of Hilo spun out of control and hit an oncoming minibus yesterday, killing all four people in the car, police said.
The names of the victims, all of South Kona, were withheld pending notification of family.
The 12 people in the minibus operated by Green Travel & Tours Inc., all from California and Taiwan, escaped with minor injuries, police said. Fire Department paramedics found them standing outside the bus. They were treated for scratches and bruises at Hilo Medical Center and released.
The accident took place about 11:40 a.m. at the 20-mile marker on Volcano Highway, a mile uphill from the landmark Hirano Store.
Witnesses in other cars reported seeing a Toyota Matrix hatchback sedan speeding downhill, said Assistant Police Chief Charles Chai.
"There were heavy showers at the time and heavy fog. The road was extremely wet," he said.
The driver of the sedan crossed the center line, Chai said.
"This car was really spinning out of control," he said.
The spinning car crossed in front of the oncoming Ford Sport Van minibus, Chai said. Then, for reasons that weren't immediately clear, the car spun back toward the passing minibus and slammed into it on the side facing the shoulder of the road.
The force of the crash was so severe that it produced debris requiring two hours to clear from the road. The highway remained closed during that time.
The sedan overturned in the crash, he said. Paramedics found it lying on its side, with one of the passengers having been thrown from it, the Fire Department said.
Those killed included the driver, a man in his 20s; a 22-year-old pregnant woman passenger in the front seat; and a man and woman in the back seat, both 42, Chai said.
All four had different last names, making it unclear what relationship they had to each other, if any, he said. All of the victims were from South Kona, he said.
The minibus remained in its own lane, Chai said. Besides the uncertainty about how the sedan was able to hit the minibus on the side opposite from the sedan's lane of travel, officers were also unsure of its speed, he said.
Traffic Enforcement Unit officers could normally get a fairly specific estimate from tire tracks, but the heavy rains mean those won't be available.
Police will also want to see toxicology reports from autopsies to determine whether substance abuse contributed to the accident.
Calls to the Hilo office of minibus owner Green Travel & Tours were not returned.
The four fatalities brought the Big Island traffic toll for the year to 12, compared with three at the same time last year.
The crash took place just half a mile uphill from the site of an Aug. 3, 2001, tour bus accident in which four tourists were critically injured.
In that case, a bus operated by Jack's Tours, carrying 18 passengers from Japan, swerved to avoid a car that had turned in front of the bus at Glenwood Road.
Similar to yesterday's accident, the 2001 accident also took place just after noon. Both accidents involved heavy rain. The roadway itself is wide, straight and well-paved with wide, shallow dirt ditches on either side, bordered by large eucalyptus trees.
